Nurse call devices are an almost essential fixture in today'hospitals. Such devices are repeatedly utilized, often several times each day, by many hospital patients and can be an essential means of notifying hospital personnel that a patient is in great need of assistance. Ordinarily, such devices are connected by an electrical cable to a wall. Ordinarily, such devices are hung from the bed post or headboard, or simply lay freely on the bed or on a counter. However, when left in these positions they are often knocked to the floor or lost in the patient's sheets and blankets, and difficult for the patient to reach or even find when needed. Particularly when a patient is confused, panicked, weak, in pain, lacking normal coordination or sight, or in conditions or poor visibility, the patient may have great difficulty in obtaining and utilizing the nurse call device.
One solution to this problem has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,464, issued to H. Helverson on Mar. 10, 1959. The Helverson patent discloses a hospital bed bell cord anchor consisting of a pocket permanently stitched flat onto a hospital bed sheet. This anchor has several difficulties in use. Firstly, the bell cord can be accidently dislodged by the patient from the anchor and fall to the floor. The patient can roll over onto the bell cord causing the patient discomfort. Depending on the patient's preferred lying position, the bell cord may be difficult to grasp or remove from the anchor.
The Helverson anchor also has a number of cost disadvantages. Since the anchor is sewn to a bed sheet, it would likely be necessary to replace the entire bed sheet if the anchor should become torn. If such anchors are desired on all or most beds in a particular facility, sheets not having the anchor would become obsolete, or anchors would have to be specially sewn onto each sheet at great cost.